Soldier balks at deploying; says Obama isn’t president

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, set to deploy to Afghanistan, says he shouldn’t have to go.

His reason?

Barack Obama was never eligible to be president because he wasn’t born in the United States.

Cook’s lawyer, Orly Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector for her client.

In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — the California-based Taitz asks the court to consider granting his client’s request based upon Cook’s belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command. … simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”

Cook, a reservist, received the orders mobilizing him to active duty on June 9.

According to this document, which accompanies Cook’s July 8 application for a temporary restraining order, he has been ordered to report to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday. From there, the Florida resident would go to Fort Benning before deploying overseas.

Documents show Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, two years after it became a state.

A hearing to discuss Cook’s requests will take place in federal court here Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

It’s distressing enough to realize that there are still people out there stupid enough to believe this line of bullshit, but it’s even more disheartening to realize that at least one of them is in a position of leadership, responsible for training and mentoring young troops. What kind of example is Maj. Cook setting for the young soldiers he might command? What kind of judgement is he showing by clinging so tightly to such a ridiculous and obvious line of right-wing lies and smears?

None whatsoever. He deserves to be court-martialed, demoted to Private and sent to Fort Leavenworth. He’s a disgrace to himself, the Army, and his country.

If he wanted out of the Army so badly, it would have been better if he’d just told them he was gay.

Update (7/15/09): Major Cook’s deployment orders have been rescinded. In a curious twist to this sordid tale, it turns out the “Major” actually volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan in May of this year, six months after President Obama’s election and four months after his swearing-in. If he had these concerns about the legitimacy of his commander-in-chief, why didn’t he quit the reserves six months ago? Why volunteer to go, and then make up this bogus claim about the President’s birth certificate?

I smell a rat. This looks like a transparent ploy to put this ridiculous conspiracy theory in the national media spotlight. Major Cook is a disgrace to the uniform.

Update 2 (7/15/09):Keith Olbermann reported last night in his “Worst Persons” segment that Major Cook has now lost his job as a Pentagon contractor.

Amendment to my previous reply: Conservatives have been wrong for the past 30 years. Why would anything change now?

The facts are, this is nothing but conspiracy-theorist nonsense. The really sick thing about the birth certificate idiocy is that even if the weight of forensic and documentary evidence in the President’s favor were to become so great as to be incontrovertible, the mind-numbed robots promoting the “coverup theory” still won’t accept Obama’s birth record as fact.

Why? Because conspiracy theories aren’t about facts, they’re about faith. And faith is very hard to break.

This “coverup consipracy theory” is a religion to its adherents. Don’t bother them with the facts.

And you, messrs. “a” and “mike”, do not have the facts on your side. Just your ludicrous conspiracy theories. Religion.

Conspiracy theories can be easily debunked…Just show us the WMDs and the birth CERTIFICATE, released by the State of Hawaii, authorized by Obama, and delivered directly to the Georgia court for analysis. Then watch the movie “A Few Good Men”. Following illegal orders DO have consquences. It is not a crime to challenge an issue that you truly believe to be controversial.

Conspiracy theories are easily debunked, as you say, but dislodging them from the public imagination is harder than removing a malignant cancer. This one has gone beyond stupid and into the realm of the genuinely dangerous. If such irrationality can take hold in the reserves, how much longer do we have until the cancer infects the active duty troops?

The fact is, President Obama has released his certificate. Some people choose not to believe it. Should we give credence to their craziness by appeasing them? Will they really cease their ranting as a result? I don’t think so – these are not people capable of rational thought. This is not about facts or proof; it’s about race.

Before we make judgements, just require the President to show that he is actually qualified to be President of the United States per the US Constitution. After all, it is the Supreme Law of the Land, as all new Citizens learn studying to become US Citizens. All Obama has to do is to release the Long-Form Birth Certificate. The one the actually states which hospital and doctor administered the birth…Is that too much to ask??? For the sake of our Constitution, the greatest written document, The “President” should at least release his “proof” of qualification that he himself took an oath to uphold. Until our current President hides his birth place from the public, these lawsuits will persists. Support our Troops, Love the Constitution and demand our President to uphold his oath to our great constitution.

Per the update, MAJ Cook volunteered to go to Afghanistan 6 months after the President took office. He wasn’t “involuntarily ordered”. Since he volunteered, he could have had the orders revoked himself (per LTC Quon, HRC-ST. Louis, 15 July 2009). LTC Quon explained to Maj Cook that a court order was not necessary to prevent him from going.

Did he have an agenda and was he duped into violating Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ)laws along the way? That’s for JAG to decide. Did he make false claims? That’s for the civilian courts to decide.

Do you seriously think the Federal Elections Commission would have allowed his Presidential bid and subsequent election to go forward without a thorough review of his birth and citizenship records? Really?

One final comment – Sen. John McCain was not born in this country. He was born in Panama on a military base. However, his Presidential bid was not challenged by the same nutjobs and hypocrites now demanding that Obama “prove” the validity of his birth certificate.

This isn’t about proof. It’s about race, plain and simple. The black man who won is being held to a higher standard than the white man who didn’t.

You so-called “birthers” who claim you only want “evidence” are nothing but a collection of racists and hypocrites.